Chapter CXXI (5)

[428] The city of Guamanga, now called Ayacucho, is in lat. 12° 59´ S., and long. 73° 59´ W. From the steep mountains which overhang it on the south-west, the city presents to the view a mass of red tiles, with church towers rising here and there, surrounded by gardens of fruit trees, which extend in different directions up the sides of the mountains, while to the north-west is the broad grassy plain called _Pampa del Arco_, and the view is bounded in that direction by the frowning heights of Condor-canqui, at the feet of which the famous battle of Ayacucho was fought. The streets run at right angles, sloping gradually from north to south, and in the centre is the _plaza mayor_. On the south side of the _plaza_ are the handsome stone cathedral and the _cabildo_ or court-house. The other three sides are occupied by private houses on handsome arcades, with stone pillars and circular arches. The south part of the town was formerly broken up by a deep ravine, but in 1801 the Spanish intendente, Don Demetrio O’Higgins, spanned it with a number of well built stone bridges. On the west side there is an _alameda_ or avenue of double rows of willow trees, by the side of which a stream of clear water flows down and supplies the city. On either hand the hills rise up abruptly, covered with fruit trees, and hedges of prickly pears. There are more than twenty churches, built of limestone, with well proportioned towers. The climate, as Cieza de Leon says, is delicious, and Ayacucho is one of the pleasantest places in Peru.

[429] In alluding to these ruins, Tschudi and Rivero, in their “_Antiguedades Peruanas_,” merely refer to the above passage in Cieza de Leon, but do not appear to have identified or examined them.

[430] The country round Guamanga still yields abundant supplies of wheat, and is capable of supporting ten times the present population.

[431] I have been unable to find any other detailed account of the ruins of Vilcas, near Guamanga, where there was evidently a very important station in the time of the Yncas. There is a bare allusion to the above passage of Cieza de Leon in the _Antiguedades Peruanas_, without a word of further information. I made an endeavour to find the ruins, when I was in this part of the country, but without success. They are mentioned, and nothing more, by Paz Soldan (_Geografia del Peru_, p. 366); and, indeed, no author tells us so much concerning the once splendid palaces and temples of Vilcas as does Cieza de Leon.

[432] This river is now known as the Pampas. It flows through the very deep valley of Pumacancha, which is covered with dense underwood, and tall stately aloes. The mountains rise up abruptly, in some places quite perpendicularly, on either side. In a place where the river is about twenty paces across, a bridge of _sogas_, or ropes made of the twisted fibres of the aloe, is stretched from one side to the other. It consists of six _sogas_, each of about a foot in diameter, set up on either side by a windlass. Across these _sogas_ other smaller ropes are secured, and covered with matting. This rope bridge is considerably lower in the centre than at the two ends, and vibrated to and fro as we passed over it. It has to be renewed several times every year. In Spanish times the Indians of certain villages were excused other service, to repair the bridge. It has been a point of considerable strategical importance, in the frequent intestine wars which Peru has suffered from, as commanding the main road from Cuzco to Lima and the coast. On the side towards Cuzco the valley of Pumacancha is bounded by the mountains of Bombon, up which the road passes through woods of _molle_, _chilca_, and other trees, while rugged peaks rise up on either side. One of those glorious views which are seldom equalled out of the Andes, may be enjoyed from the _cuesta_ of Bombon.

[433] Lucanas is one of the provinces of the modern department of Ayacucho.

[434] From the Quichua words _anta_ (copper) and _huaylla_ (pasture), “the copper coloured meadow.”

[435] See _ante_, note at p. 280.

[436] The original followers and subjects of Manco Ccapac, the first Ynca of Peru, appear to have been called _Quichuas_, and hence the name of the language. The derivation of the word is doubtful. In Peru the hot tropical valleys are called _Yunca_, the lofty cold heights _Puna_, and the intermediate temperate region _Quichua_. Mossi suggests the following derivation of the word. _Quehuani_ is “to twist” in Quichua, the participle of which is _Quehuasca_, “twisted;” and _Ychu_ is “straw.” Hence _Quehuasca-ychu_, “twisted straw,” corrupted into _Quichua_; from the quantity of straw growing in this temperate region. Thus the Quichuas were the inhabitants of the temperate zone, between the _Punas_ and the _Yuncas_; and they were the original followers of the first Ynca of Peru. _Gramatica de la Lengua General del Peru, con Diccionario, por el R. P. Fray Honorio Mossi (Misionero) Sucre_, 1857.

[437] _Sonccon_ is the Quichua word for “heart.”

[438] Diego Maldonado was one of the first _conquistadores_. He was imprisoned in the fortress of Cuzco by Almagro, after the marshal returned from Chile, with Marcio Serra de Legesamo, and many others. He was afterwards in the battle of Chupas, fighting on the royal side. He became a _regidor_ of Cuzco, where he had several houses, received Andahuaylas in _encomienda_, and was surnamed “the rich.” When Gonzalo Pizarro rebelled, Maldonado was with the insurgent forces, and, hearing that accusations had been brought against him, he fled from his tent on foot, and hid himself in a field of sugar cane. An Indian found him, and, with the usual kind-heartedness of his race, guided him to the beach, made a _balsa_ out of a bundle of straw, and paddled him to one of La Gasca’s ships, which was lying off and on in Callao bay. He was then sixty-eight years of age; but he still continued to play an important part in public affairs, and was wounded in the rebellion of Giron in 1554. He lived for twelve years afterwards, though he eventually died, in 1566, of wounds received in the battle against that rebel.

[439] The Indians of Andahuaylas, descendants from these Chancas, are a tall and generally handsome race, and many of the women are beautiful. The population of the valley is about six thousand.

[440] The valley of Andahuaylas is one of the most beautiful in the Andes. It contains the three small towns of Talavera, Andahuaylas, and San Geronimo. Through its centre flows a little river, lined on either side by lofty willows, while here and there large fruit gardens slope down to its banks. Every part of the valley is carefully cultivated, and large fields of wheat cover the lower slopes of the surrounding mountains.

[441] From the beginning of January to the end of March 1548. Gasca was here joined by Valdivia, the conqueror of Chile, and when he commenced his march against Gonzalo Pizarro, he was at the head of nearly two thousand well armed men.

[442] This is the river Pachachaca. It is now spanned by a handsome stone bridge of one arch, at a great height above the stream. This bridge is some sixty years old. The Pachachaca is a tributary of the Ucayali.

[443] See my translation of the life of Don Alonzo Enriquez de Guzman, chap. xlviii, and note at p. 114. HAKLUYT SOCIETY’S volume for 1862.

[444] A few miles beyond the little village of Curahuasi, is the precipitous descent to the bridge over the Apurimac (_Apu_, “chief,” and _rimac_, “speaking,” or “a speaker,” in Quichua). A steep zigzag path leads down to the side of the cliff, and at last the precipice becomes so perpendicular that a tunnel has been excavated in the solid rock, about twenty yards long, at the end of which is the bridge. It is made in the same way as that over the river Pampas. The river dashes furiously along between vertical precipices of stupendous height, and a high wind is not uncommon, which blows the frail rope bridge to and fro, rendering the passage very dangerous, and at times impossible.

[445] The empire of the Yncas, as it existed in the time of Manco Ccapac, the founder of his dynasty, only extended from the Apurimac on the west, to the Paucar-tambo on the east, a distance of about fifty miles. In the centre was Cuzco, while on each frontier there was a fortress and a palace--Ollantay-tampu on the north, Paccari-tampu on the south, Paucar-tampu on the east, and Rimac-tampu (corrupted by the Spaniards into Limatambo) on the west, near the river of Apurimac. The ruins of the palace of Lima-tambo are situated in a delightful spot, commanding a fine view. Only two walls, and the face of the stone terrace on which the palace was built, now remain. These walls are twenty and forty paces long respectively, forming an angle, and about fourteen feet high. The stones are beautifully fitted into each other, without cement of any kind, and to this day look angular and fresh. At intervals there are recesses in the walls, about one foot deep and eight feet high. The interior of the palace is now an extensive fruit garden.

[446] These are the _andeneria_ or terraced fields and gardens. They may still be seen on the hills bordering the plain of Xaquixaguana or Surite.

[447] The original name of this plain appears to have been _Yahuar-pampa_ (field of blood), so called in memory of the bloody battle between the army of Ynca Huira-ccocha and the allied tribes led by Anco-hualluc. In the days of the Spanish conquest it was known by the name of _Xaquixaguana_ (Cieza de Leon and Zarate) or _Sacsahuana_ (G. de la Vega); here the Ynca general Challcuchima was cruelly burnt to death by Pizarro, and here the President Gasca defeated and executed Gonzalo Pizarro and Carbajal. It is now generally called the plain of Surite, from a village of that name at its north-western corner.

The plain of Surite is a few leagues west of Cuzco, on the road to Lima, at a sufficient elevation to be within the region of occasional frosts, and is surrounded by mountains, up which the ancient _andeneria_ or terraced fields, now left to ruin, may be seen rising tier above tier. The plain is swampy and covered with rank grass, and would be difficult to cross, if it were not for the causeway, built by order of the Yncas, and accurately described by Cieza de Leon, which is still in good preservation. This causeway is of stone, raised about six feet above the plain, and perfectly straight for a distance of two leagues. At the end of the causeway is the little village of Yscu-chaca.

[448] The ancient city of Cuzco is in lat. 13° 31´ S., and long. 73° 3´ W., at the head of a valley 11,380 feet above the level of the sea. The valley is nine miles long, and from two to three broad, bounded on either side by ranges of bare mountains of considerable elevation. It is covered with fields of barley and lucerne, and, besides many farms and country houses, contains the two small towns of San Sebastian and San Geronimo. On the north side the famous hill of Sacsahuaman rises abruptly over the city, and is divided from the mountains on either side by two deep ravines, through which flow the little rivers of Huatanay and Rodadero. The former stream rushes noisily past the moss-grown walls of the old convent of Santa Teresa, under the houses forming the west side of the great square of Cuzco, down the centre of a broad street, where it is crossed by numerous stone bridges, and eventually unites with the Rodadero. The Huatanay is now but a noisy little mountain torrent confined between banks faced with masonry; but in former times it must have been in the habit of frequently breaking its bounds, as the name implies, which is composed of two words, _Huata_ (a year), and _Ananay_, an ejaculation of weariness, indicating fatigue from the yearly necessity of renewing its banks. The principal part of the ancient city was built between the two rivers.

[449] “The grandeur of the fortress of Cuzco,” says Garcilasso de la Vega, “is incredible to those who have not seen it, and those who have examined it carefully might well imagine, and even believe, that it was made by some enchantment, and by demons rather than men. The multitude and bigness of the stones in the three lines of fortification (which are more like rocks than stones) cause admiration, and it is wonderful how the Indians could have cut them out of the quarries whence they were brought, for they have neither iron nor steel. How they conveyed them to the building is a still greater difficulty, for they had no bullocks, nor did they know how to make carts which could bear the weight of the stones; so they dragged them with stout ropes by the force of their arms. The roads by which they had to come were not level, but led over very rugged mountains, up and down which the stones were dragged by sheer force. Many of the stones were brought from distances of ten, twelve, and fifteen leagues, particularly the stone, or, to speak more correctly, the rock which the Indians call _saycusca_ (as much as to say ‘tired’), for it never reached the building. It was brought from a distance of fifteen leagues, across the river of Yucay, which is little smaller than the Guadalquivir at Cordova. The nearest quarry was at Muyna, five leagues from Cuzco. But it is still more wonderful to think how they fitted such great stones so closely that the point of a knife will scarcely go between them. Many are so well adjusted that the joining can scarcely be seen, and to attain such nicety it must have been necessary to raise them to their places and lower them very many times; for the Indians had no square, nor had they any rule by which they could know that one stone fitted justly on another. They had no knowledge of cranes nor of pulleys, nor of any machine which would assist them in raising and lowering the stones.” ... Acosta (lib. vi, cap. 14, p. 421, ed. 1608) makes similar remarks on the size of the stones and on the difficulty of raising them. Garcilasso continues: “They built the fortress on a high hill to the north of the city, called Sacsahuaman. This hill rises above the city almost perpendicularly, so that on that side the fortress is safe from an enemy, whether formed in squadron or in any other way. Owing to its natural advantages this side was only fortified with a stout wall, more than two hundred fathoms long. But on the other side there is a wide plain approaching the hill by a gentle incline, so that an enemy might march up in squadrons. Here they made three walls, one in front of the other, each wall being more than two hundred fathoms long. They are in the form of a half moon, and unite with the wall facing the city. The first wall contains the largest stones. I hold that they were not taken from any quarry, because they bear no marks of having been worked, but that they were huge boulders (_tormos_) or loose rocks which were found on the hills, adapted for building. Nearly in the centre of each line of wall there was a doorway, each with a stone of the same height and breadth, which closed it. The first of these doorways was called _Ttiu-puncu_ (Sand gate); the second, _Acahuana-puncu_, so called after the chief architect; and the third, _Huira-ccocha-puncu_. There is a space of twenty-five or thirty feet between the walls, which is made level, so that the summit of one wall is on a line with the foot of the next. Each wall had its parapet or breastwork, behind which the defenders could fight with more security. Above these lines of defence there is a long narrow platform, on which were three strong towers. The principal one was in the centre, and was called _Moyoc-marca_ or ‘the round tower.’ In it there was a fountain of excellent water, brought from a distance underground, the Indians know not whence. The kings lodged in this tower when they went up to the fortress for amusement, and all the walls were adorned with gold and silver, and animals, birds, and plants imitated from nature, which served as tapestry. The second tower was called _Paucar-marca_, and the third, _Sacllac-marca_. They were both square, and they contained lodgings for many soldiers. The foundations were as deep as the towers were high, and the vaults passed from one to the other. These vaults were cunningly made, with so many lanes and streets that they crossed each other with their turns and doublings.” Garcilasso complains that the Spaniards, instead of preserving this wonderful monument, have taken away many stones, from the vaults and towers, with which to build their new houses in Cuzco; but they left the three great walls, because the stones were so enormous that they could not move them. He adds that the fortress took fifty years in building.

The ruins of the fortress of Cuzco are the most interesting in Peru, and I made a very minute examination of them in 1853. On the side of the hill immediately above the city there are three stone terraces. The first wall, 14 feet high, extends in a semicircular form round this end of the hill, for 180 paces. Between the first and second walls there is a level space 8 paces broad. Above the third wall there are many carefully hewn stones lying about, some of them supporting three lofty wooden crosses. Here, probably, were the three towers mentioned by Garcilasso, now totally destroyed. The view from this point is extensive and beautiful. The city of Cuzco is spread out like a map below, with its handsome church towers and domes rising above the other buildings. The great square is seen, crowded with Indian girls sitting under shades before their merchandise, or passing to and fro like a busy hive of bees. Beyond is the long plain, and far in the distance, rising above the lower ranges of mountains, towers Asungato, with its snowy peak standing out in strong relief against the cloudless sky.

The length of the platform or table land on the summit of the Sacsahuaman hill is 525 paces, and its breadth, in the broadest part, 130 paces. Many deep excavations have been made in all parts of it, in search of hidden treasure. On the south side the position was so strong that it needed no artificial defence, being bounded by the almost inaccessible ravine of the Huatanay. On the north, from the terraces already described for 174 paces in a westerly direction, the position is naturally defended by the steep ravine through which flows the river Rodadero, and only required a single stone breastwork, which still exists. But from this point to the western extremity of the table land, a distance of 400 paces, it is entirely undefended by nature. Here the Yncas constructed that gigantic treble line of Cyclopean fortification, which must fill the mind of every traveller with astonishment and admiration. The first wall averages a height of 18 feet, the second of 16, and the third of 14: the terrace between the first and second being 10 paces across, and that between the second and third 8 paces. The walls are built with salient and retiring angles. The position is entered by three doorways, so narrow that they only admit of the passage of one man at a time. The outer angles are generally composed of one enormous block of stone. I measured some of these. One was 17 feet high, 12 broad, and 7½ long; another, 16 feet high by 6 broad. They are made to fit so exactly one into the other as to form a piece of masonry unparalleled in solidity and the peculiarity of its construction, in any other part of the world. These walls are composed of a limestone of a dark slate colour, and are now overgrown with cacti and wild flowers.

[451] Known, in the days of the Yncas, as _Huaca-puncu_ (“the holy gate”).

[452] The Yncas ascertained the time of the solstices by means of eight towers on the east, and eight towers on the west of the city, put four and four, two small between two large ones. The smaller towers were eighteen or twenty feet apart, and the larger ones were the same distance, one on each side. The solstice was ascertained by watching when the sun set or rose between the smaller towers. _G. de la Vega_, i, lib. ii, cap. 22.

[453] The four grand divisions of the empire of the Yncas gave their names to these four royal roads. The whole empire was called _Ttahua-ntin-Suyu_, literally “The four regions.”

[454] The most detailed account of ancient Cuzco is to be found in the pages of the Ynca historian. He says that the first houses were built on the steep slopes of the Sacsahuaman hill. The city was divided into two parts, Hanan-Cuzco (upper or north) and Hurin-Cuzco (lower or south). The chief ward or division was on the slopes of Sacsahuaman, and was called _Collcam-pata_. Here Manco Ccapac built his palace, the ruins of which are still in good preservation; and the great hall, where festivals were celebrated on rainy days, was entire in the days of Garcilasso. The next ward, to the east, was called _Cantut-pata_ (“the terrace of flowers”); then came _Puma-curcu_ (“lion’s beam”), so called from a beam to which wild animals were secured; then _Toco-cachi_ (“window of salt”); then, further south, _Munay-sencca_ (“loving nose”); then _Rimac-pampa_ (“speaking place”), where ordinances were promulgated, close to the temple of the sun, at the south end of the city; then _Pumap-chupan_ (“lion’s tail”), where the two streams of Huatanay and Rodadero unite, and form a long promontory, like a tail. To the westward there was a division called _Chaquill-chaca_; and next to it, on the north, were others called _Pichu_ and _Quillipata_. Finally, the division known as _Huaca-puncu_ (“holy gate”) adjoined the _Collcampata_ on the west side.

The inner space, between the abovenamed divisions or suburbs, and extending from the Collcampata on the north to Rimac-pampa on the south, was occupied by the palaces and houses of the Ynca and his family, divided according to their _Ayllus_ or lineages. This central part of the city was divided into four parts, called _Hatun-cancha_, containing the palace of Ynca Yupanqui; _Puca-marca_, where stood the palace of Tupac Ynca Yupanqui; _Ynti-pampa_, the open space in front of the temple of the sun; and _Ccori-cancha_, which was occupied by the temple of the sun itself. Immediately south of the _Collcam-pata_ was the _Sacha-huasi_ or college, founded by Ynca Rocca, where the _Amautas_ or wise men resided. Near the college was the palace of Ynca Rocca, called _Coracora_, and another palace called _Cassana_,{a} the abode of the Ynca Pachacutec. The latter was so called because it would cause any one who saw it to freeze (_cassa_) with astonishment, at its grandeur and magnificence. These palaces looked upon the great square of the ancient city, called _Huacay-pata_ (“the festive terrace”), which was two hundred paces long and one hundred and fifty broad from east to west. At the west end it was bounded by the Huatanay stream. At the south side there was another royal palace, called _Amaru-cancha_ (“place of a serpent”), the residence of Huayna Ccapac, and south of the _Anaru-cancha_ was the _Aclla-huasi_.

{a} The site is now occupied by the convent of San Francisco. or convent of virgins. West of the _Huacay-pata_ was the _Cusi-pata_ (“joyful terrace”), which was united with it, the Huatanay being paved over with large flagstones.

All the streets of modern Cuzco contain specimens of ancient masonry. Many of the stones have serpents sculptured in relief, and four slabs are to be seen, with figures--half bird, half man--carved upon them, with some pretence to artistic skill. The wall of the palace of Ynca Rocca is still very perfect. It is formed of huge masses of rock of various shapes, one of them actually having twelve sides, yet fitting into each other with marvellous accuracy. They are of a sombre hue, and have an imposing effect. With the exception, however, of this building, of the palace on the Collcampata, and of the fortress, which are in the Cyclopean style, all the ancient masonry of Cuzco is in regular parallel courses. The roofs were of thatch, but very neatly and carefully laid on, as may be seen in the specimen still existing at the _Sondor-huasi_ of Azangaro (See _note_ to p. 166), and the city must altogether have presented a scene of architectural grandeur and magnificence which was well calculated to astonish the greedy and illiterate conquerors.

[455] _Ccuri-cancha_ means literally “the place of gold.” Its site is now occupied by the convent of San Domingo, but several portions of the ancient temple of the sun are still standing, especially at the west end, where a mass of the dark, beautifully-formed masonry, about eighteen feet high, overhangs the Huatanay river. At the east end of the convent the ancient wall of the temple is almost entire, being seventy paces long and about thirty feet high. The stones are of irregular length, generally about two feet by one and a-half, and very accurately cut. They are in regular parallel courses, with their exterior surfaces projecting slightly and sloping off at the sides to form a junction with their neighbours. The roof was formed of beams pitched very high, and thatched with straw. In the interior the four walls were lined with plates of gold, and at one end there was a huge golden sun, with features represented, and rays of flame darting from its circumference, all of one piece. It extended from one wall to the other, occupying the whole side. This magnificent prize fell to the share of a Spanish knight named Marcio Serra de Lejesama, who gambled it away in one night; but he never took a card into his hand again. The reformed knight married an Ynca princess, and left the memorable will which I have quoted in a note at page 124.

On each side of the golden sun were the mummies of the deceased Yncas, seated in chairs of gold. The principal door faced towards the north, and opened on the open space known as the _Ynti-pampa_; and a cornice of gold, a yard broad, ran round the exterior walls of the temple. On the south side were the cloisters, also ornamented with a broad cornice of gold, and within the enclosure were buildings dedicated to the moon, and adorned with silver, to the stars, to lightning, and to the rainbow; as well as the dwellings of the _Huillac Umu_, or high priest, and of his attendants. Within the courts of these cloisters there were five fountains, with pipes of silver or gold. In the rear of the cloisters was the garden of the sun, where all the flowers, fruits, and leaves, were of pure beaten gold. I have myself seen some of these golden fruits and flowers.

[456] Namely Sinchi Rocca (1062), Lloque Yupanqui (1091), Mayta Ccapac (1126), Ccapac Yupanqui (1156), Ynca Rocca (1197), Yahuar-huaccac (1249), Huira-ccocha (1289), Pachacutec (1340), Ynca Yupanqui (1400), and Tupac Ynca Yupanqui (1439). The last named was succeeded by Huayna Ccapac (1475), in whose reign the Spaniards first appeared on the coast of Peru.

[457] G. de la Vega quotes this passage (i, lib. vii, cap. 19).

[458] In Quichua, _Muchani_ is to adore or to kiss; and _Muchay_ would be “adoration.”

[459] The valley of Yucay or Vilca-mayu is the paradise of Peru. It was the favourite residence of the Yncas, and is one of the most delightful spots in this favoured land. The rapid river which flows through it rises in the mountains of Vilcañota, and, leaving the city of Cuzco at a distance of about ten miles to the west, eventually joins the Apurimac after a course of about four hundred miles, and becomes one of the main affluents of the Ucayali.

The valley is seldom more than three miles in breadth, and is bounded on its eastern side by the snow-capped range of the Andes. To the westward there is a lower range of steep and rocky mountains. Within these narrow limits the vale of Yucay enjoys a delicious climate, and the picturesque farms, with their maize towers surrounded by little thickets of fruit trees, the villages scattered here and there along the banks of the rapid river, the groves of trees, and the lofty mountains rising abruptly from the valley, combine to form a landscape of exceeding beauty. The little village of Yucay is on the site of the delicious country retreat of the Yncas, a palace on which all the arts of Peruvian civilisation were lavished to render it a fitting abode for the sovereign and his court. The only remaining vestiges of the palace are two walls of Ynca masonry, forming sides of a modern house in the _plaza_ of the village.

[460] Next to the fortress of Cuzco, the ruins at Tambo or Ollantay-tambo, in the valley of Yucay, are the most astonishing in Peru. They are built at a point where the valley is only about a league in width, covered with maize fields, with the broad and rapid river flowing through the centre. The dark mountains rise up almost perpendicularly on either side to such a stupendous height that but a narrow portion of blue sky smiles down upon the peaceful scene between them. A ravine, called Marca-ccocha, descends from the bleak _punas_ of the Andes to the valley of Yucay at this point, and at the junction two lofty masses of rock rise up abruptly in dark and frowning majesty. The fortress of Tambo is built on the rock which forms the western portal to the ravine. The rock is a dark limestone, the lower part of which, to the south and east, is faced with masonry composed of small stones. At a height of about 300 feet there is a platform covered with a ruin apparently left in an unfinished state. Here there are six enormous slabs of granite, standing upright, and united by smaller pieces fitted between them. Each slab is 12 feet high, and at their bases there are other blocks of the same material, in one place formed into a commencement of a wall. This spot appears to have been intended as the principal part of the citadel. In the rear, and built up the steep sides of the mountains, there are several edifices of small stones plastered over with a yellow mud. They have gables at either end, and apertures for doors and windows. Still further to the east, a flank wall of the same material rises up from the valley to near the summit of the mountain, which is very steep and rocky, and indeed difficult of ascent. Immediately below the principal platform there are a succession of stone terraces. The upper one is entered at the side by a handsome doorway with an enormous granite lintel. The wall is built of polygonal-shaped blocks, fitting exactly into each other, and contains eight recesses, two feet two inches high by one broad and one deep. When the inner sides of these recesses are tapped with the fingers, a peculiar metallic ringing sound is produced. In front of the terraces there a series of well-constructed _andeneria_, or hanging gardens, sixteen deep, all faced with masonry, which descend into the ravine. On the opposite side of these _andeneria_ the mountain rises perpendicularly, and terminates in a dizzy peak, where there is a huge block of stone called the _Ynti-huatana_, or place for observing the sun.

The most astonishing circumstance connected with these ruins is the distance from which the stones which compose them have been conveyed. The huge blocks of granite of enormous dimensions rest upon a limestone rock, and the nearest granite quarry is at a distance of six miles, and on the other side of the river. On the road to this quarry there are two stones which never reached their destination. They are known as the _Saycusca-rumicuna_ or “tired stones.” One of them is 9 ft. 8 in. long and 7 ft. 8 in. broad; with a groove round it, three inches deep, apparently for passing a rope. The other is 20 ft. 4 in. long, 15 ft. 2 in. broad, and 3 ft. 6 in. deep.

At the foot of the rock on which the fortress is built there are several ancient buildings. Here is the _Mañay raccay_ or “court of petitions,” sixty paces square, and surrounded by buildings of gravel and plaster, which open on the court by doorways twelve feet high, surmounted by enormous granite lintels. On the western side of the ravine of Marca-ccocha, opposite the fortress, there is another mass of rock towering up perpendicularly, and ending in a sharp peak. It is called the _Pinculluna_ (“Place of Flutes”). Half-way up, on a rocky ledge very difficult of approach, there are some buildings which tradition says were used as a convent of virgins of the sun. They consist of three long chambers separated from each other but close together, and rising one behind the other up the declivitous side of the mountain. They are each twenty-eight paces long, with a door at each end, and six windows on each side. There are steep gables at each end about eighteen feet high, and the doors have stone lintels. There may have been six cells, according to the number of windows, making eighteen in all. On one side of these buildings there are three terraces on which the doors open, which probably supplied the inmates with vegetable food and flowers, and whence they might view one of nature’s loveliest scenes, the tranquil fertile valley, with its noble river, and mountains fringed with tiers of cultivated terraces.

About a hundred yards beyond the edge of these convent gardens the Pinculluna becomes quite perpendicular, and forms a yawning precipice eight hundred feet high, descending sheer down into the valley. This was used as the _Huarcuna_ or place of execution, and there is a small building, like a martello tower, at its verge, whence the victims were hurled into eternity.

For an account of the tradition connected with the building of Ollantay-tambo, and of the Quichua drama which is founded on it, see my work, _Cuzco and Lima_, pp. 172 to 188.

The authors of the _Antiguedades Peruanas_ believe these ruins to be anterior to those of Cuzco.

[461] _Cunti-suyu_ was the western division of the empire of the Yncas. The word was afterwards corrupted by the Spaniards into _Condesuyos_; and the district of that name is now a province of the department of Arequipa. It is nearly on the watershed of the maritime Cordillera, and is drained by a river which, after irrigating the valley of Ocoña, falls into the Pacific.

[462] To the eastward of the Andes are the great forests which extend unbroken to the Atlantic. Those in the immediate neighbourhood of Cuzco are watered by the tributaries of the Purus, one of the largest and most important, though still unexplored affluents of the Amazon. These forests comprised the _Anti-suyu_ or eastern division of the empire of the Yncas, and were inhabited by wandering savage tribes called Antis and Chunchos. The forest region was first invaded by the Ynca Rocca, but no permanent conquest was made until the reign of the Ynca Yupanqui, who received tidings of a rich province inhabited by a people called Musus (Moxos) far to the eastward. All the streams were said to unite and form a great river called the Amaru-mayu (“serpent river”), which is probably the main stream of the Purus. The Ynca made a road from the Andes to the shores of the river, through the forest-covered country now known as the _montaña de Paucartambo_, and was occupied for two years in making canoes sufficient to carry ten thousand men, and their provisions. He then descended the river, and, after a long and bloody war, subjugated the savage tribes of Chunchos on its banks, and collected them into a settlement called Tono. They ever afterwards paid an annual tribute of parrots, honey, and wax to the Yncas. Yupanqui then penetrated still further to the south and east, and conquered the province of Moxos.

In the early days of the conquest, the Spaniards established farms for raising coca, cacao, and sugar in the beautiful forests of Paucartambo, especially along the banks of the Tono, and Garcilasso de la Vega tells us that he inherited an estate called Abisca, in this part of the country. But as Spanish power declined, these estates began to fall into decay, the savage Chunchos encroached more and more, and now there is not a single farm remaining in this once wealthy and flourishing district. The primitive forest has again resumed its sway, and the country is in the same state as it was before it was invaded by the Ynca Yupanqui. The exploration of the course of the Purus is one of the chief desiderata in South American geography. An expedition under Don Tiburcio de Landa, governor of Paucartambo, penetrated for some distance down the course of the Tono in about 1778; in about 1824 a Dr. Sevallos was sent on a similar errand; General Miller, in 1835, penetrated to a greater distance than any other explorer before or since; Lieutenant Gibbon, U.S.N., entered the forests in 1852; and I explored part of the course of the Tono in 1853. I have been furnished with a most valuable and interesting paper on the river Purús, by Mr. Richard Spruce, the distinguished South American traveller and botanist, which I have inserted as a note at the end of this chapter.

[463] These are the _Chunchos_ and other wild tribes.

[464] Unfit for translation.

[465] “_Ensayo Corografico sobre o Pará._ This author cites no authorities, but he had access to very valuable documents and manuscript maps in the archives of Pará, most of which were unfortunately destroyed or dispersed during the uprising of the _cabanos_ in 1835; and wherever I have had the opportunity of testing his statements by personal observation I have found them very exact.

[466] “_New Discovery of the Great River of the Amazons._ Markham’s Transl., p. 107.

[467] “Acuña writes these names respectively ‘Curucurus’ and ‘Quatausis.’

[468] “The original exists as an appendix to the ‘Falla dirigida á assemblea legislativa provincial do Amazonas, no dia 1º de Outubro de 1853,’ by Senhor Herculano Ferreira Penna, the learned and patriotic president of the province, who presented me with a copy of it when I revisited the Barra in 1854.

[469] “_Tolda_, roof to shelter the after part of a canoe.

[470] “_Furo_, a channel between two points of the same river, or from one river to another, which becomes filled with water in the time of flood. A narrow channel between an island and the bank is generally called a _Paraná-merím_, or little river.

[471] “Caldeiraō, a noted whirlpool in the Amazon, near the left bank, above the mouth of the Rio Negro.

[472] “Solimoēs, the Brazilian name of the Amazon from the Rio Negro to the frontier, or even as far up as to the mouth of Ucayali.

[473] “The _furo_, or _paraná-merím_, of Paratarý is the lowest mouth of the Purús, and it appears that Serafim sailed along it for three days before reaching the main channel. In 1851 I spent nearly a month on the lakes of Manaquirý, about forty miles below the mouth of the Purús, and found that the Paratarý had many ramifications, communicating not only with those lakes, but also with the much larger lake of Uauatás to the eastward, and thence with the river Madeira. In the rainy season, indeed, it is possible to navigate for hundreds of miles parallel to the southern side of the Amazon without ever entering that river.”

[474] “The beaches on the Amazon and its tributaries are very important to the Indians, being the places where the turtles lay their eggs; and hence they all have a special name.

[475] “_Ubá_, a canoe made simply of a hollow trunk, and stretched to the form of a boat by putting fire under it and cross pieces of wood within it. _Casca_, a bark canoe.

[476] “This is the _yúca_ of Peru, and is a distinct species from the _mandiocea_ (_Manihot utilissima_ Pohl.), which is the staple article of food throughout Brazil.

[477] “In June 1851, I took six days to go from the Barra only half way to Manacapurú, but the river was then at the height of flood, and my large boat was manned by only three men.

[478] “I should suppose the Uainamarís to be a tribe of the savage Chunchos. Many of the large Indian nations spoken of by old authors are now much subdivided; thus of the Jibaros, on the eastern side of the Quitenian Andes, have been constituted in modern times the tribes Achuales, Pindus, Huambisas, etc.

“The Cucamas are a section of the great Tupi nation, and speak a very euphonious dialect of Tupi. They are now found scattered in most of the villages on the Marañon (or upper Amazon) in Peru, and formerly existed in much greater numbers than at present in the village of La Laguna, within the Huallaga. It is curious to find a remnant of them so far separated from the bulk of their nation as at the head of the Purús, but it is explicable enough when we come to trace the migrations of the Tupís and Cucamas, as narrated by Acuña and other writers.”

[479] See my chapter on coca cultivation in _Travels in Peru and India_, chap. xiv, p. 232.

[480] Cieza de Leon now conducts the reader up the beautiful valley of Vilca-mayu, or Yucay.

[481] Canas was conquered by Lloque Yupanqui, the third Ynca. _G. de la Vega_, i, lib. ii, cap. 18.

[482] The country inhabited by the Indian tribes of Canas and Canches was, in Spanish times, included within the Corrigimiento of Tinta, one of the divisions of the Presidency of Cuzco. It now comprises the two provinces of Canas and Canches. It consists of lofty plateaux or _punas_ of the Andes, intersected by the deep and fertile ravine through which flows the river Vilcamayu or Yucay; and is bounded on the south by the equally lofty plains of the Collao. The _punas_ are covered with flocks of llamas; and the more inaccessible fastnesses are the haunts of huanacus, vicuñas, deer, and viscachas (a kind of rabbit).

In the most remote times the tribe of Canas inhabited one side of the Vilcamayu ravine, and that of Canches the other. The former were proud, cautious, and melancholy, their clothing was usually of a sombre colour, and their music was plaintive and sad. The latter were joyous, light hearted, and sociable, but very poor, their clothing consisting of skins. They made wars upon each other, and built their villages in strong fortified positions called _pucaras_. These tribes were brought under the yoke of the Yncas by Sinchi Rocca, the second of his dynasty. He permitted the ancient chiefs to retain their power, but insisted upon their children being educated at Cuzco. The Canas, however, were constantly in a state of revolt, until the Ynca Huayna Ccapac gave one of his daughters in marriage to their chief.

The Canches were of middle height, very bold, restless, inconstant, but good workmen, industrious, and brave. The Canas, though of a darker complexion, were stouter and better made. The Canches loved solitude and were very silent, and built their huts in secluded ravines and valleys. The villages of the Canches were Sicuani, Cacha, Tinta, Checacupe, Pampamarca, Yanaoca, and Lanqui; and those of the Canas were Checa, Pichigua, Yacuri, Coparaque, Tungasaca, Surimani. Sicuani, in the ravine of the Vilcamayu, is the principal place in the country of the Canches and Canas. At the end of the last century it contained a population of four thousand Indians, and one thousand Mestizos. The number of Indians in the whole district was calculated, at the same time, to amount to twenty-six thousand souls. _Mercurio Peruano_ (_Nueva Edicion_), i, p. 193.

[483] Garcilasso de la Vega relates a tradition respecting this temple at Cacha, which is on the right bank of the river Yucay, sixteen leagues south of Cuzco. A supernatural being is said to have appeared to the Ynca Huira-ccocha, before the battle with Anco-hualluc and his allies on the plain of Yahuar-pampa (see note to p. 280), and after his victory the grateful prince caused a temple to be erected at Cacha, in memory of the phantom. As the vision appeared in the open air, so the temple was to have no roof, and as he was sleeping at the time under an overhanging rock, so there was to be a small covered chapel opening into the temple, which was 120 feet long by 80. The edifice was built of large stones carefully dressed and finished. It had four doors, three of them being merely ornamental recesses, and the fourth, facing to the east, was alone used. Within the temple there were walls winding round and round and forming twelve lanes, each seven feet wide, and covered overhead with huge stone slabs ten feet long. As these lanes went round and round they approached the centre of the temple, and at the end of the twelfth and last there was a flight of steps leading to the top. At the end of each lane or passage there was a window by which light was admitted. The steps were double, so that people could go up on one side and down on the other. The floor above was paved with polished black stones, and on one side there was a chapel, within which was the statue representing the phantom. The Spaniards entirely demolished this temple.

[484] This description of the Collao is very accurate. South of the Vilcañota mountains the Andes separate into two distinct chains, namely the cordillera or coast range and the Eastern Andes, which include the loftiest peaks in South America, Illimani and Sorata. The Collao is the region between these two ranges. It contains the great lake of Titicaca, and consists of elevated plains intersected by rivers flowing into the lake.

[485] The potatoe was indigenous to the Andes of Peru, and the best potatoe in the world is grown at a place called Huamantango, near Lima. I am surprised to find that Humboldt should have doubted this fact, (“La pomme de terre n’est pas indigène au Pérou.” _Nouv. Espagne_, ii, p. 400), seeing that there is a native word for potatoe, and that it is mentioned as the staple food of the people of the Collao, by Cieza de Leon, and other early writers. Moreover the _Solanaceæ_ are the commonest plants in several parts of Peru. The ancient Quichua for potatoe is _ascu_ or _acsu_, and the same word exists in the Chinchay-suyu dialect. (_Torres Rubio_, p. 219.)

[486] _Chuñus_ or frozen potatoes are still the ordinary food of the natives of the Collao. They dam up square shallow pools by the sides of streams, and fill them with potatoes during the cold season of June and July. The frost soon converts them into _chuñus_, which are insipid and tasteless.

[487] The _oca_ (_Oxalis tuberosa_ Lin.) is an oval shaped root, the skin pale red, and the inside white. It is watery, has a sweetish taste, and is much liked by the Peruvians.

[488] See note at page 143.

[489] See chapter xxv, p. 90.

[490] The most remarkable of these tower tombs of the Collao are at a place called Sillustani, on a promontory running out into the lake of Umayu, near Puno. This promontory is literally covered with places of sepulture. Four of them are towers of finely cut masonry, with the sides of the stones dovetailing into each other. See a full description of them in my _Travels in Peru and India_, p. 111; also _Vigne’s Travels in South America_, ii, p. 31; and _Antiguedades Peruanas_, p. 293.

[491] A small village of the Collao, on the banks of the river Pucara, near the point where, uniting with the Azangaro, it forms the Ramiz, which empties itself into lake Titicaca at the north-west corner.

[492] The editor also remained a whole day at Pucara in 1860, looking at everything, but more than three centuries had elapsed since the visit of Cieza de Leon, and there is no longer a vestige of the ruins mentioned in the text. Pucara is a little town at the foot of an almost perpendicular mountain, which closely resembles the northern end of the rock of Gibraltar. The precipice is composed of a reddish sandstone, and is upwards of twelve hundred feet above the plain, the crevices and summit being clothed with long grass and shrubby _queñuas_ (_Polylepis tomentella_ Wedd.) Here Francisco Hernandez Giron, the rebel who led an insurrection to oppose the abolition of personal service amongst the Indians, was finally defeated in 1554. In 1860 the aged cura, Dr. José Faustino Dasa, was one of the best Quichua scholars in Peru.

[493] Hatun-colla is now a wretched little village, not far from the towers of Sillustani, already alluded to.

[494] See my chapter on the province of Caravaya, in _Travels in Peru and India_, chap. xii, p. 199.

[495] A thorough survey of the great lake of Titicaca is still a desideratum in geography. The lake is about 80 miles long by 40 broad, being by far the largest in South America. It is divided into two parts by the peninsula of Copacabana. The southern division, called the lake of Huaqui, is 8 leagues long by 7, and is united to the greater lake by the strait of Tiquina. A number of rivers, which are of considerable volume during the rainy season, flow into the lake. The largest of these is the Ramiz, which is formed by the junction of the two rivers of Pucara and Azangaro, and enters the lake at its north-west corner. The Suchiz, formed by the rivers of Cavanilla and Lampa, also flows into the lake on its west side, as well as the Yllpa and Ylave; while on the eastern side are the rivers Huarina, Escoma, and Achacache. Much of the water thus flowing in is drained off by the great river Desaguadero, which flows out of the south-west corner, and disappears in the swampy lake of Aullagas, in the south of Bolivia. Perhaps a great quantity is taken up by evaporation. On the eastern side lake Titicaca is very deep, but on parts of the west shore it is so shoal that there is only just water enough to force a _balsa_ through the forests of rushes. The winds blow from the eastward all the year round, sometimes in strong gales, so as to raise a heavy sea. Along the western shore there are acres of tall rushes. The principal islands are those of Titicaca and Coati, near the peninsula of Copacabana, Campanario, Escoma, Soto, and Esteves.

[496] The temple, on the island of Titicaca, was one of the most sacred in Peru, and the ruins are still in a good state of preservation. The buildings are of hewn stone, with doorways wider below than above. But they are inferior to those on the adjacent island of Coati. See _Rivero_, _Antiguedades Peruanas_, chap. x.

[497] We first meet with Hernando Bachicao as a captain of pikemen in the army of Vaca de Castro. When Gonzalo Pizarro rose against the viceroy Blasco Nuñez de Vela, he entrusted Bachicao with the formation of a navy. That officer took command of a brigantine at Callao, which had just arrived from Quilca, and sailed up the coast. At Tumbez he found the viceroy, who fled inland on his approach; and Bachicao seized two vessels. Sailing northward he captured several others, and with the fleet thus formed, he got possession of the city of Panama in March 1545. Soon afterwards Gonzalo Pizarro appointed Hinojosa to command the fleet, and superseded Bachicao; who then joined his chief with reinforcements from Panama, and took part in the final defeat of the viceroy at Añaquito, where he commanded the pikemen. At the battle of Huarina, where he also commanded the pikemen, believing that the forces of Centeno were about to gain the victory, he turned traitor and deserted his colours; but he was mistaken, for his old commander Gonzalo Pizarro won that bloody fight. Bachicao, therefore, returned to his own side, and would have been glad if his conduct had escaped observation. But the eagle eye of the fiery old master of the camp, Carbajal, was not to be deceived, and the captain Hernando Bachicao was hung by his order, a few days afterwards, in the little village of Juli, on the western shore of lake Titicaca.